NCAA Football Report (Week 13)
Rivalry week certainly lived up to its reputation even if some of the biggest games of the week weren’t really rivalry games.
The week always tends to be big as there is inevitably a few games that are going to mean a lot more on the national stage.
This year the biggest one of them all was the Iron Bowl where the undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide were set to take on their biggest rival in Auburn.
The Iron Bowl tends to be a bigger game than many as Auburn and Alabama have both been good throughout the last few years.
That rivalry has often come to determine the National Championship and this year it was going to do the exact same.
Alabama was ranked at the top of the CFP rankings putting them right into the hunt for the National Championship.
They had to beat the Tigers though who entered rivalry week as the sixth best team in the country and were far from pushovers.
Whoever won this game would be headed to the SEC championship game and the winner of that championship was likely headed to the playoff.
For the Power Five conferences, it is essential to win a championship if they want to find their way to the playoff.
If they don’t the other big schools will likely overtake them and take over those four spots.
Alabama needed to beat Auburn to make sure they were going to be playing another game and hopefully taking home the SEC championship as well as the top spot in the rankings.
If Auburn could take the win they would certainly move up in the rankings and have a shot at the SEC championship against Georgia.
A win from them could put the season for the Tide in jeopardy as they could easily lose their top spot and possibly move out of the top four altogether.
The Tigers were able to pull off the upset once again putting the Tide into a much larger group of one-loss teams that are all vying for the top four spots.
Their biggest issue now is that they will need to wait and see if they can actually stay in the top four of the CFP rankings.
Their season is done and their final impression is a loss in their biggest game of the year leaving the committee to question whether or not they belong in the playoff.
Georgia or Auburn will take the SEC champion leaving the Tide as a one-loss team without a championship.
There could be other teams that might deserve a spot more as next week is the final chance for a team to make an impression.
Championship week provides that final chance as there are still teams right in the mix but only if they can win the championship in their conferences.
Miami would have been an easy choice to take the top spot if they didn’t lose to Pittsburgh in Week 13.
Unlike, Alabama though they do have a chance to get back in the win column and make an impression on the committee before their season is over.
The Hurricanes will play Clemson in the ACC Championship Game where the winner has a very good shot at making the top four.
The loser could be out of it completely as it would hand them their second loss of the season and it would be difficult to make a case for a two-loss team in the playoff.
There will be other very important games that week too that will all go a long way to determining the top four this year.
The Big Ten Championship will feature an unbeaten Wisconsin team against the powerhouse Ohio State Buckeyes who have been in every playoff since the new system began.
Wisconsin is one of the few unbeaten teams left in the country and they are the beneficiaries of Miami and Alabama losing as their spot in the top four is pretty likely.
If they can win the Big Ten championship it is going to be hard to argue against them taking a spot as a perfect champion.
There are plenty of teams who have seen their season finish and now have to watch the next week to see how things land.
Rivalry Week just made everything more complicated though as both Miami and Alabama are now among the one-loss teams.
There is an argument for either of them to make the playoff but with Miami having another game they get the chance to show that they belong.
Alabama has to sit back and wait to see if the committee thinks that they truly deserve to be in the top four among one-loss teams that have taken a championship.
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